President Trump said Friday that his administration was “making a lot of progress” with China, as deputy-level trade talks continued for a second day and Washington lifted tariffs on over 400 Chinese products at the request of US businesses, who said they’d be hurt by the tariffs.
But he also noted that cutting a deal to end the trade war was not a priority before the 2020 election — suggesting the dispute could last another 13 months or longer.
“No, I don’t think I need it before the election. I think people know that we’re doing a great job. We’re looking for complete deal. I’m not looking for a partial deal,” the president at the White House said during a press briefing with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
China, he asserted, was being hurt by the trade war more than the US. “China is being affected very badly. We’re not being affected. In fact, we’re taking in billions of dollars. China is eating that. China is eating the tariffs,” he said.
Morrison struck a diplomatic tone when asked how the trade war was affecting his country, a major trading partner with China.
“Obviously we’d like to see the United States and China to be able to come to an agreement. Deals have to be fair, deals have to be good deals, deals have to be sustainable deals,” he said before touting Australia’s relationship with China, the world’s second largest economy behind the US.
“We have a free trade agreement with China,” Morrison said, before wishing Trump luck in his negotiations.
“He’s been working on it for some time and we wish him well,” he said.
Earlier, the US Trade Representative’s office issued three Federal Register notices exempting a wide range of products from tariffs in response to requests from US companies, which argued that the levies would cause economic hardship.
The 437 exempted products range from printed circuit boards for computer graphics processors to dog collars, laminated wood flooring and miniature Christmas lights.
Chinese and US negotiators are holding two days of talks that were expected to focus heavily on agriculture, and lay the groundwork for high-level talks in early October that would determine whether the two countries are working toward a solution or headed for new and higher tariffs on each other’s goods.
The US wants China substantially increase purchases of American soybeans and other farm commodities, a person with knowledge of the planned discussions told Reuters.
And the president noted that he had bailed out farmers who were struggling because of reduced imports to China.
”I’m talking care of our farmers. We’re helping our farmers. Our farmers were targeted and they were targeted for $16 billion. I made that up to them,” said Trump, who once called trade wars “easy to win.”
Chinese delegates will visit American farm regions with US officials next week, in a gesture of goodwill.
However, the Trump administration and China’s Communist Party remain far apart on issues that are the basis of their trade dispute, including the US declaring some Chinese state companies national security risks, and Beijing’s refusal to revamp its economic model by eliminating subsidies for state companies.
With Post Wires